Of hope and iron
by Aparima
Summary: "Do you know how to hope ? You just close your eyes and pray. Do you know how to win a war ? Kill them before they kill you. Can't do both at the same time." "I'll try anyway. That's our job." - Some stories and tales about how the characters of ME came to be what they are, trying to provide answers to various questions, exploration of the ME's universe.
1. Chapter 1

AN : Hi there everyone, and thanks for reading this story ! Ordinary, I am the one for long speeches, but this time I'll get to the point : this short story is a pure product of my imagination, and its purpose is to explore differently the Mass Effect's universe, providing a bit more immersion - or so I hope, anyway. I don't have any big expectations with it - I just enjoy writing it, and I hope that it will be a common pleasure. Of course, all the credits for this go to Bioware (I won't get into any discussion about the ending now...) who really has the knack for introducing a bit of dream and fantays into our lives. Feel free to review this, to inquire about the theme, and even to ask questions about the characters you would want to see answered in this kind of essay :) Now that all is settled...on with the show !

* * *

_First Chapter. Why is Shepard always called Shepard ? _

Her full name was Lili-Rose Shepard, and god, she _hated it._

It could have been worse, she guessed. She could have been Fionnah, or Yvette. She could have had a pretty common name. In terms of non-commonness, Lili-Rose was a challenge for most, after all. Too bad that, in terms of intimidation, it wasn't exactly the case. Who would take seriously a girl called "Lili-Rose" ? What exactly has been going in the sweet head of her mother when she chose this name, precisely, of all those that she could have had ? She often mused over the question at night, but could not find a satisfying answer to that.

So, when someone asked her who she was, she would say, with a dead-serious look : "I'm Shepard." Somehow, it seemed…suiting. Shepard sounded a bit like shepherd. On the scale from laughable to impressive, she guessed Shepard was ranging at the top. It sounded good, too, far more better than Lili-Rose ; so she would insist on it, and little by little, everyone on Mindoir would say : "This girl, here ? Oh, Shep, you mean." And that was it. It was very simple, actually, so simple that, when she grow older and become the famous galaxy's hero (but that's another part of this story), nobody would believe it. But nobody ever called her Lili-Rose again, either, so the grown-up Shepard would smile and laugh and give orders, and think about the time when she was a little child back on Mindoir, clumsy and witty, and ashamed of her own name. She would think about how her father, ignoring her pleas, went on teasing her, by calling her 'his little flower.'

One day, little Shepard – how old was her ? Eleven, maybe ? – went to see him in the garden, where her father loved to go after work. The skies on Mindoir were some kind of pale blue-purple, and the sun blazed upon the petals of the most exotic flowers of the planet and its satellites, or at least that's what she told to the other children. She was very proud of her father.

"Daddy, why did you and mom called me "Lili-Rose"? I hate it. The boys keep laughing at me. I think it is a stupid name. I want to change it. "

Her dad let out a mocking whistle of admiration, but did not answer immediately. Instead, he made sure he had well replanted his roots of orchids. When that was done, his pale, nimble fingers caressed gently the petals of the little flowers, and he said, his voice as low as a whisper – but that's how he always spoke, after her mum's death :

" The boys laugh at you, you said ? Was it them that told you the name was stupid ?"

" Yes", she answered.

"What did you answer them ?"

" Told them to go fu…_go away_ and have a private conversation with a part of themselves that never see the sun, Daddy", she said carefully, knowing that her father despised bad words.

He laughed, and turned towards her. His glasses were full of dirt, so he took them off and spit on the glass to clean them up.

"Lili, darling, your name is absolutely _beautiful_, I assure you. I don't know why you keep inquiring about it. It is of the most utter loveliness, and that's your daddy's speaking."

"Yes, but…" she began, but her dad have her _the_ look (the special one all children learnt to recognize at an early age, and which said : "Don't. Whatever you're gonna say or do next, just _don't_.") , and she shut up immediately. He went on :

" Come with me, child. I'm going to show you something."

He got up and started to walk towards the little garden, where they kept the more fragile flowers under special glass domes that would restored their native climate to them. She trotted along, wondering what he intended to show her. She did not doubt it would be enlightening. Her father only spoke and acted when he thought that was a necessity, and would never speak for the pleasure of hearing his own voice. _Words are winds_, after all ; so he shared only a few, but never meaningless.

"I received them two weeks ago. It took a bit of time for the space carrier to bring them here, what with all the security procedures back on Earth. You haven't see them yet."

It was not a question.

" I didn't go in the garden lately", she replied. "I had...things to do elsewhere."

"I know. Doing climbing with Jack seems to be part of your new important schedule." For some reason, her father had a lingering disgust for every boy that went near her, and would not stop inquiring about them. The subject was very important to him. " Here they are. I've been wanting to show you some for a time, but these simply don't grow on Mindoir : the soil is too cold for it, and they don't like the eezo and platinum, both resources this planet have in abundance."

Her dad stopped walking, and so she did. She looked around her ; she recognized the star-tree, a rare thing this side of the galaxy, coming from the asari planet Thessia : it grew quite well here, because of the eezo in the soil, but the water needed purification before you could water it, or the minerals would simply kill it. It was a very beautiful tree, which has gained its namesake because of the shape of its leaves and flowers, and the shimmering color of it._ Asaris had such a more advanced civilization than us_, she thought while looking at the beautiful tree that was as common as grass on Thessia. _They are beautiful, gracious and deadly. Unlike me. The sirens of space, they call her. I bet no one would ever call Lili-Rose a siren of space. The strangest part of it is, I don't want to be like them. Is it right ? Every human girl I know plays at being an asari_. Along was a plantation of carrots imported from Earth, and some salarian palm-tree-like with strange, curved branches. She did not know what to think about those. Apparently, salarians in the past used their leaves to make clothes and ropes ; but that was millenaries ago, at a time where humanity was still painting their hands in deep caves and had more likeliness with apes that with thinking beings. It was strange to consider that humanity was still boiling in the primitive soup when many of the races out there were already probing their sattelites. Some still said Nazca was dues to some salarians having fun. That's why her history teacher, in love with an asari, told her, anyway, but her father would laugh when she repeated that to him, and looked at her : "Be careful, little flower : when people called another people 'savages', it always end up ugly. Don't listen to everything those so-called civilized beings tell you. History is just some reports of geography over the time, of how the frontiers and limits changed with wars. All in all, history is always a problem of frontiers that start with people calling others savages."

There were new plants, too. She had not seen them yet. Those were under special domes, that she guessed were designed especially to provide them with their natural climate.

They were flowers. From the colors and shapes of them, she would say there were three different species : the first one was as tall as her, with big, elegant red petals, and its branches wore thorns ; the second was pale, with sparks of pink, and high stamen ; the third one was a bunch of purple grapes, and it smelled really funny once her father opened the dome to let her see better. She wrinkled her nose in response to that attack directed towards her olfactory organ.

"Yuck ! _They smell !_" she complained.

Her father smiled.

"Roses", he said pointing the first group of flowers, "Lilies, and lilac. Those plants only grow in Earth, and they've become rare since the 2000's, when humanity entered in the New Age centuries and used offensive inorganic to advance in the scale of technology. It's only thanks to the famous botanist Mohammed Al Seikh that we've still got them. Roses are symbols of passion, love and strength ; they're red, which matched yours and your mother's hair. Lilies embody beauty, pureness, protection. Lili-Rose : do you see what we made here ? I know, lilac have nothing to do with this story, but your mother adored these flowers. Before leaving for a mission or the other for the Alliance, she would ask me to cut a flower for her that would grant her chance. She loved the lilac's smell. It held memories for her, from when she lived in France. As for me, I did not like lilac that much, but I really liked your mother and I had to coexist with it. Now, I think it's the most perfect smell of the universe."

Shepard looked more closely towards the strange, unknow petals. She was very careful in doing so, because once you've been face to face with a carnivorous plant from the Krogan's land, you just stop doing inconsiderate things like putting your nose in everything that smells funny and have pretty colors. She decided she liked the lilies. They were beautiful, in a kind of simple way, and that quite suited her. The roses…, that was another thing. They had thorns, so surely they weren't peaceful flowers. It was possible that they were alike the vine of Palaven, which grew only in times of war and had big, red thorns. She did not like it. The petals were pretty, but the lion that run towards you and is going to ripe your guts out is also pretty. Lilies were more reliable, as she declared to her father – it made him laugh and snort, as he tried to explain to her that flowers did not have morals standards.

"_They are or they are not._ That's all about it. What about the lilac ?"

" It's unlike everything I've ever seen. I'm not sure how to feel about it."

"When you end up with something you've never seen before, there's only one way to act around it: _be curious_. Decipher it. Analyze. Understand how it works, and why. Don't give up. Never give up."

"I don't give up", she said reproachfully, which gained a slight, frail smile from her father.

"Keep on this way, then. You can always do a little bit more that you've already done."

She looked at the violet grape again, and decided it was good. Her mum would not have loved it if it was the contrary.

"Did Mum had the rights to take flowers on the Alliance's ships ? I did not know you could do that."

"But she did anyway. Your mum was no woman you wanted to fight with. And her crew would never have objected to one of her decisions. They loved her. She was a good captain."

"But she died anyway."

"Yes, she did."

"Why ?"

"Because of some people who considered another as savages. Because turians were better armed than humans would ever be. Because flowers don't grant chance ; they only grant hope. Hope and rifles don't mix well. Flowers and rifles don't mix well."

"Don't you hold any grudge against them ?"

"Who ?"

"The turians."

"Why should I ?"

"They've killed mama."

"And how many widows did humans made in return ? No, Lili, that's really a thing you should not dwell on. War is waged by elites, not by common men ; blame the man that gave the orders and sent your mom to a certain death to buy time for a racial, hateful war, but not the soldiers on both sides that did not have the choice. But let's speak no more about these sad, sad subjects. I believe Anderson is coming tomorrow, to discuss some news diplomatic movements, I suspect. The man seems to think I'm a good counselor for this, for some reason I don't quite understand. We should make a room for him."

"Yes, Daddy", she said, but she was not relieved with the prospect, nor with the answer he had provided.

If her Dad could not answer her question, who would ?

And that's how Lili-Rose, the little curious girl from Mindoir, became Shepard, commander of the Normandy. She was no siren of space..., but she was a shepherdress. Someone has to do the job.

That's also why, when she landed on Palaven's moon with Vega and Liara behind her, she stopped dead.

"What's it, Lola ? _We have to move on_!" insisted James, who did not know what diplomacy meant. Or maybe he did, but in his mind, it must at least involved a crash, some big weapons, a bottle of whisky and a really good poker-game.

_Lola._ That was another namesake of her. She quite liked it, though. Of course, she would not show it to Vega….it was a little game between the two of us, some secrets they were meant to keep. "Lola." Shepard would have loved to be born with this name. She was glad the tattooed man had made up this one for her. It felt like a gift.

Liara looked around her, scurrying their environments. "By the godess", she whispered slowly, her beautiful, haunting voice hunging up in the air – full of the words she had not said, of those none of them would speak up.

The whole universe was chaos around them, and Shepard steeled herself. _Breathe_, she told herself ; _you don't have the time to think about this. You have to make things right. People count on you. Someone has to do the job, Shep. A job made for iron, not for flowers. You don't have to be the smarter, or the stronger ; you have to do it, that's all._

She pointed towards some big and white, discreet plant that grow up under the shadows of some rocks, and hanged to the cliff thanks to its red, large thorns :

" The _war-vine_, turians call it. The legend says it only gives flowers when great dangers threatens the turians…it has been proved that was because of some particle in the blood that cause their blooming. Last time it happened, it was for the First Contact War. My mother died here." It sounded strange. Shepard was not sad, and she did not forget her mission. She would never consider her personal turmoil before the well-being of the lives she had to rescue. She was a soldier,_ she did not have to be the stronger, or the smarter, or the prettiest ; she only ought to do her job, and do it good._ She could not start dwelling on the subject. She had to act.

As they begin rushing towards the turian camp, Vega taunted her : "Did not know you were so interested in flowers and girly stuff, Lola."

"It's only one of the _many_ things you don't know about me, soldier. Or about the war-vine."

"Can't say the same about me", came the voice of Liara.

"There are things better left unknow", groaned Shepard, aware of the irony. As the new Shadow Broker, Liara far too many things that Shepard was really comfortable with.

Liare chuckled sadly.

"You're wrong, Shep. It is what you don't know that kills you, not what you know. Trust a Shadow Broker on this. There's no thing such as "better left unknow.""

And that's when the turian began to haul bullets at them.


	2. Chapter 2

**λ** _It must have been a sniper, _Liara thought as she clearly saw the bullet drawing a perfect, right line towards the masked head of Shepard. She did not see it. She should have.

The Commander had already died a first time. She remembered clearly the dreadful silhouette of the dismembered ship, the way it shined though the dead, black, empty space ; shined like a sun morphing into a nova, shined like the eyes of those who cry silently. She has known then that there was no real comparison, but at the time she could only thought about it. Somehow the light reflecting on the incoming bullet reminded her all that.

She used a stasis field. At the same time, the Commander lept on the side, as graceful and fast as a Sur'Kesh cat, her shield sizzling. _She's changed so much since the first time I met her_, the asari thought as she drew her pistol, trying to point it towards the direction of the bullet.

300 meters away, there were a bunch of red rocks. A perfect cover for a sniper. There was movement coming from it, too ; and, suddenly, the turian jumped out of his cover – _The fool ! _Liara thought, before correcting herself : _No, that is not something any turian might do. They are far more clever than that._ – and…

Ran away.

The turian just ran away.

_Something is wrong._

Vega growled and launched himself forward, removing the safety catch from his assault rifle.

Where did the bastard think he was going ? He just fucking tried to murder the Commander ! He could have friends down there, James knew – damn, this was probably some fucking trap. But well, someone had to go after the bad guy, and James was well-suited for that. First, he had that big armor, and wore much more grenades that was really safe. He was pretty sure that if a Reaper tried to tear him into pieces in melee, then they were both going to hell with an enormous "kaboum !" Moreover, he had the incendiary ammos – which meant that he could, basically, nuke a whole place out just by himself. He was confident in his assets – and, well, he would not like to explain it face-to-face to the Commander and the scientist, but if someone was going to a certain trap only to try to get a grip on a traitor, that someone was going to be the man of the band. His grand-ma would be so mad at him if he did not respect the gallantry principles she had – with much difficulty – inculcated him. James would never disobey his grand-ma…twice, that is. If the Vega abuela knew you had done something bad – and the abuela always seemed to know, even if you've done your best to hide all the proofs – then she would do something to you that was far much worse than any of the dirty tricks the Reapers could pull. Hell, his abuela was probably beating a cannibal to death by Anderson's sides all by herself right now.

So he ran, and could clearly hear the curse of Shepard :

" – By all the whores of Omega, Vega, _stay down_ ! Now ! I've got this !"

**Í ** At her left, the blue stasis field of Liara danced in the air, wrapping the bullet inside it. How did she do that ? Shepard wondered. The bullet came so fast that no one could have possibly react fast enough to stop it or avoid it. But still, the biotic has managed to block it. The deadly thing was hanging desperately in the air, a few inches only from her head. _ I guess I should not be that surprised that all the members of my crew are so talented. They're making me proud since the first day I met them. And a little bit afraid, too. To be that talented, you have to be a bit psycho. Just take a look at Miranda and Jack for example. _

She had tried to avoid it anyway. Her shields would have taken it, she guessed, but only a fool remained in the trajectory of a projectile launched at this speed. At the Alliance's camp, she had learnt how movement was a key to survival ; she had been renowned, not for her strength nor her precision, but for the way she always moved around, and never lost track of her enemies. More precisely, she had lost count of the times her instructor pulled her over and put a toothbrush and a bucket into her hands, indicating her the way to the toilets : "You think it's a freakin' ballet out there, private Shepard ?! Move your sorry ass over there and do something useful ! The Alliance has no need for a pussy dancer like ya !" Old times…

But why would a turian try to kill her – and failed ? He had to know he could not make it. This didn't make sense.

She tried to call Vega back – but the tattooed man ignored it and rushed forward.

The soldier was beginning to really annoy her with his hot-tempered behavior. Her fingers were itching with the cryo freeze her gauntlets circuits would provoke towards those she pointed, and she hesitated to use it on the shoes of Vega; maybe that would teach him not to run head first into every trap he saw. Instead, she aimed at the running turian, who yelped before falling to his knees, his legs engulfed in a block of cryo ice.

No shield ? That was strange.

And, before she could think more :

" Shepard ! Reapers coming your way, at six !" said Joker in her helmet. His voice seemed tense.

Apart from the rocks in front of her, there was no accessible cover for them.

And more bullets came from it. They were directed at Vega.

**Λ** "That's not good, Shep", Liara said, already lifting two cannibals in the air with a singularity. Her white armor was outstanding in the dark landscape, and two of the group of Reapers started to aim at her. She distinctly felt her barrier stopping incoming shots, and even if it was not the first time it happened, her heart stopped beating in her chest – _please, please Goddess, make that barrier holds_ – and then, the crackling sound and the violet color forming a thin cover around her body informed her it had held.

Liara did not know anyone in the galaxy, Krogans aside, that could say proudly they were never afraid when bullets met their shields. You just hope, hope very hard, that they will hold while you try to run for cover.

A bright sound and the sudden apparition of a flame-like orb in the enemy ranks informed her that Shepard had launched her combat drone, while the Commander moved towards her.

"We have no choice ! We must hail to the rocks !"

"They have our backs !"

"We must trust Vega", Shepard said, a shot of her pistol exploding the head of a cannibal. "You run forth, I cover you. _Now !_"

Liara took a wild aim, and managed to hit the leg of a Reaper, sending it to its knees ; she wrapped the only cannibal left on her singularity's influence, then turned her back and run forward, to the muscled silhouette of Vega, who was giving a hell of a fight to anyone who tried to bring him down there.

James had heard Joker, too, but right now he was a little too busy to really take in this new situation.

Because there was a crying turian, his legs engulfed in ice, who begged him not to kill him – and he knew it was not right, because turians did not cry. Turians were the tougher at poker ; they just don't express their feelings like a human would. Most of them kept a stoic face, what with their military education and all.

Liara and Shepard could think he was stupid, but he was not. He very well knew he was going into a trap and had even anticipated that Shepard would make this move to stop the running turian. That was the most clever thing to do, after all, and Shepard could not do something really stupid : that made her predictable, and a very bad player at poker, though a hell of a woman to have by your side in war. The only thing he did not anticipate was that the guy would be begging for his life.

Glancing briefly towards the silhouettes of the asari and the commander, who were busy with some fight on their own side, he launched himself towards the rocks. The first bullets pierced his shield and one ripped on his armor. _Bullet-proof steel_, he thought. _Not the most pretty – but hell, what's pretty compared to alive and kicking ? _He fired, not really bothering himself with aiming. His ammos were incendiary, after all ; most living beings did not like the idea to stand too close to a dangerous, cruel fire, especially when it was projected by a guy bulked like James. Fire was confusing, tricky, and incendiary weapons were made to burn steel. He heard curses, which reassured him – _at least, I'm going after thinking beings, not some machines_ -, and had just the time to throw himself behind a boulder before being shot down. His shield buzzed in again.

He took a grenade from his secret place, near his elbow, pulled the pin out and launched it towards his aggressors.

Fragmentation grenades, now that was something you did not laugh about.

He made sure all his body was covered by the boulder and tried to make himself the smallest possible as the world went "boom" around him.

**Í** Shepard tried to step back and advanced towards the hypothetical cover spot, but that proved difficult – her left calf has been touched, apparently. _Gonna need some medi-gel_, she thought, but not too long because there was another of those things that was going at her and she had to kill it before it killed her, like her Alliance instructor would say. "Do you know how to hope, child ? Just close your eyes and pray. Do you know how to win a war ? Kill them before they kill you. That's as simple as it ever gonna gets on the battlefield, believe me. You can't do both at the same time, 'cause hope, it doesn't get your stomach full and can't kill. Kill hope, then kill them. When you're alive and safe, you can hope again." That's what he said to her. She did not agreed.

"EDI, what's going on?" she shouted, but the voice of Joker replied instead : "I don't know, Commander ! EDI's not answering !"

_Fuck_, she thought.

The thing was on her.

It was the last one standing. Her scanning sensor detected it was surrounded by a shield, which was strange considering it wore no proper armor to speak off. Or, more exactly…it _was_ pieces of armor on dead, rotten flesh. Its grey, slender chest seemed much more like its guts had been scattered away than protected by steel. The thing was thin, grey blue-skinned, with some long ears and horrible, long arms that ended in rotten claws; but its head…

She realized it, and it came as a shock, though she should have think of it before.

_It's a turian. It… was a turian. Reapers have made turian-husks_.It was alive before.

_Oh, god…Please. Please let it not be Garrus. _

She lifted her pistol but the thing gave a large movement of his arm to brush it off, and she lost her grip on the Predator.

She was ready for that and her other hand was grasped around an arc of blue energy, made especially to overload her enemies' shields – or to turn off the alarm clock without getting up from her bed, but that was years ago. The arc exploded against the shield, reducing it to zero. The thing launched itself forward, looking to dig its claws in her neck, but she was ready for that, too. When it landed on her, she gave away immediately and let the thing made her fall under it ; the claws ripped at her chest, but were useless against her N7 armor. The omni-blade, though, went right through the chest of the creature, whose big, white eyes slowly rolled, paused and, with a long cry of agony, the turian died, for good this time.

It was heavy, but heck, she was Shepard. She was strong enough to lift the monster up and, as she did so, she could not help but remarked how, once dead, the thing looked like a normal turian - a normal dead turian. Not a monster, she thought. Not a savage. _Someone whose body has been taken to do…this. Someone who had a life before._

_It could be Garrus lying down, and I would not know. Whoever this was – I am so sorry._

That was all she could think before a strong detonation attracted her attention ; the cover James tried to reach was no more now than a smoky haze raining little rocks. Frag grenades, she knew at once. Those ones precisely were vicious : they exploded in multiple, tiny pieces, that could pierce shields and armor – flesh was cut like a butter by the little things, and if someone threw one at you, the best thing you could do was either to have a biotic barrier, or to run away very fast, crying for mercy at the top of your lungs. She hated those : Cerberus' troopers had a knack for transporting some and once, she got caught up in the shockwave following the explosion. She stayed deaf for two hours after that, which had note made the mission easier.

That was good and well, she thought, but then she heard Liara's voice through her helmet. And it was full of pain.

"Lia !" she called out, her heartbeat racing in her chest.

She ignored the pain in her calf and jumped across the bodies, rushing towards the blue form that was laying on the ground, a hand gripped on her bloodied tunic.

James heard it, too. Dust blinded him, but he did not care.

He did not know the asari was so close. He should have known. He should have cared. He reached for medi-gel in his armor's pocket and made his way towards her ; the biotic has been touched on her side, and the shards had crossed her armor until they met her ribcage. Blue blood was staining the ground under her, and she was breathing heavily.

But even in this state, she said :

" Sorry, James. I…did not see. It's not your fault. Just give me... medigel and I'll be fine."

He obeyed immediately, not daring to lose time. He first took out the shards of the grenades, which was a painful and difficult operation. The little tube of medigel was easy to open and the transparent, creamy fluid he applied on the asari's wounds worked like a little miracle : open wounds retracted slowly but surely, and soon, apart from the rip in her armor and clothes, it was like Liara never was wounded. Shepard had joined them at the time, and even if she tried to stay silent, knowing that it was common for soldiers to be taken in collateral damages and now was not the time to start an argument, her furious glare would not leave James and he suddenly felt like being face-to-face with his abuela again after having eaten all the remnants cookies from the secret jar.

" I am the sorry one here, Liara," he tried, feeling uneasy and clumsy. He was not good at apologizing. "Look, I'll buy a drink on the ship, as many as you want, okay ? Just…be good."

She laughed.

" You two, stop being silly. I'm fine, really. You should be more worried about the ambush we have fallen in."

"And survived", said Shep.

"Yeah, _not like_ I'm putting pressure on your shoulders or anything, Commander, but didn't we have, like, an objective ?" said Joker.

Shepard got swiftly on her feet. "There were three turians behind the boulders. They may had wore markings…before a frag grenade made their brains meet their feets", she said coldly.

" Sorry about that, Lola. Had to do something. We were taken under heavy fire on both sides", James said back.

"We are going to discuss this later, Vega. But know this :_ you won't_, in the shot lapse time which separates us all from the safety of the Normandy, disobey my orders - _ again_."

"Maybe if you…"

" Shepard !" That was Liara.

The redhaired soldier turned towards her, "The prisoner. Had he survived from the exploit of Vega ?"

The asari paused for an instant. "No. Not really. But I think you should see that."

James followed the woman towards the silhouette of the turian, refraining his anger. The cryo on the turian's legs had not enable him to escape further, and had also signed his death arrest. His back was pierced all along the spine. But the blood coming off it was not blue, as was turian's one ; it was a bright, rich red hue all humans know.

"Okay, now that's_ loco_", he murmured under his breath.

"Not loco", Shepard rectified, as she knelt down. Her hands went to roll the turian on his back – and went through it, with a buzzling sound. The impression was difficult to describe, as if you were watching pixels moving at high speed, but James reminded having already seen it –

"It's a hologram", he said, surprise creeping through his tone.

Liara frowned. "Maybe the human wore a device which projected the holo ?" she suggested, still keeping an eye of their environment. "It has been known to be used before, though it did end badly."

" Looks like this time made no exception, then", said Shepard. "The device…it's here. At his omnitool's place." She took some black bracelet off and the pixels of the turian's holo were gone, leaving the back of a white human with brown hair. The Commander rolled it on his back, and gasped.

To James, it was only the body of a most common man in his early thirties. His brown eyes were wide open, and he remembered the crying and the begging – he wore exactly the kind of beard men wore when they want to look bad, but are not really.

"You know him ?" he asked.

Liara answered :

"An informer on the Citadel. The snitcher kind. He sold information to me…, and VIs. The name is…Gwen Blake. Why would he be here ?"

"You know, I find the way you always seem to know everything about everyone really creepy", he said. "It's like being followed by a stalker in the privy. How much do you know about me ?"

" You do not wear tattoos only on your back."

"Fuck you."

There was a laugh. It turned out it was Shepard's one, even if it was not the malicious, lively laugh they both were accustomed to ; this one looked far more grim.

" For once, Liara, you're wrong – and it is up to me to teach you something new.

This man is a duct rat from Zakera. He is also an emigrant from Mindoir. And I am pretty sure the advanced holo-device he is wearing has more than one utility or appearance. He used to sell illegal VIs of me.

But, most importantly, he's Thane and Thane's son contact on the Citadel, and one who loved to tangle in inter-racial mess. I know Thane and him had recent contacts.

His birthname may have been Gwen Blake – but like some other people in this universe, though with different fates, he grew up to made his own name – and so, it is_ Mouse_ you're talking about.

And I don't believe his appearance here is only for the sake of the cameo."


End file.
